Cheap, Portable Pres/AD/DA to pair with an RME Digiface USB?

M

matthewjumpsoffbuildings

New member
I am interested in buying an RME Digiface USB for a portable rig, to play guitar and vocals, as well as some MIDI instruments. In my home studio I am using an RME RayDAT with a bunch of 8 channel preamps, as well as separate MIDI I/O, and a big monitor controller on my desk. I got so used to the insane performance and latency of the RME setup, hence why I want to start with the RME Digiface USB as the core component of my portable system. I'd like to get something small to pair with it

Ideally I want something with:
  • ADAT I/O with the ability to slave to the RMEs superior clock (ofc)
  • OR - SPDIF I/O/slave that uses the optical connector (not coax)
  • At least 1 microphone preamp
  • At least 1 separate Hi-Z guitar input (not bound to the same channel as the mic)
  • Ability to route the analogue inputs directly to the optical outputs
  • Ability to route the optical inputs to at least 1 stereo pair of analogue line outputs, ideally with some kind of main out volume control knob
  • At least 1 headphone amp, fed by the optical inputs also, ideally with its own volume control
  • Preferably MIDI I/O over USB2, though this is not essential
  • DC Power is fine, or power over USB, not too fussed
  • Decently fast AD/DA converters, since low round trip latency is one of my priorities
I dont care if the device is old, discontinued etc. If it has the kind of routing I am looking for, its not really essential that the device even have USB, though that would be nice just to use it as a MIDI IO device and leave the Digiface as the audio driver. If it does have USB it should be USB/MIDI compliant and work with modern Macbooks (eg M1 2020 or later)

I know I can get lots of big full rack width 18 in out this that and the others, but I really want to keep it small and portable. Something I can throw in my bag with my Macbook and the Digiface. As far as the quality of the pres, etc, I am not super obsessive. For example in my home studio I use an ADA8200 with the RayDAT, with no major gripes.

I have been looking at some discontinued Edirol/Cakewalk stuff, the UA-101, UA-25EX, UA-4FX etc, and they seem like they might fit the bill, but I am honestly not sure. I am wondering if there is anything old from MOTU, EMU, etc. It is often hard to find info on older products, and even harder to find if they would work in this kind of ADAT/SPDIF optical slave mode

Any advice or suggestions on portable, budget friendly, small devices that would suit my needs would be greatly appreciated
 
Well, turns out theres an old Terratec Phase X24 firewire interface with optical IO and standalone operation running off a 12V power plug... picked one up for $35, set up the routing once on an old PC with firewire, and it works perfectly paired with the RME Digiface USB

At 44.1Khz with 32 sample buffer - RTL of 4.4ms - the closest any of the modern portable interfaces I tested with those settings came was 6.2ms (Focusrite, Presonus, Volt, Behringer, Zoom, Steinberg etc)

Haven't tested at higher sample rates yet, but I am assuming the latency will be even more impressive.

Happy with the results
 
matthewjumpsoffbuildings said:
Well, turns out theres an old Terratec Phase X24 firewire interface with optical IO and standalone operation running off a 12V power plug... picked one up for $35, set up the routing once on an old PC with firewire, and it works perfectly paired with the RME Digiface USB

At 44.1Khz with 32 sample buffer - RTL of 4.4ms - the closest any of the modern portable interfaces I tested with those settings came was 6.2ms (Focusrite, Presonus, Volt, Behringer, Zoom, Steinberg etc)

Haven't tested at higher sample rates yet, but I am assuming the latency will be even more impressive.

Happy with the results
Click to expand...
Happy that you are happy Matthew! However, if I were you I would keep looking (and saving!) for something current. Firewire is all but dead and you say "an OLD computer"? Both that and the X24 are liable to fail at some point and be very hard to impossible to get repaired.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Happy that you are happy Matthew! However, if I were you I would keep looking (and saving!) for something current. Firewire is all but dead and you say "an OLD computer"? Both that and the X24 are liable to fail at some point and be very hard to impossible to get repaired.

Dave.
Click to expand...
As I understand it, once he's got it configured, it doesn't need to be connected to a computer again so the disappearance of Firewire doesn't matter. That's how I use my Focusrite Saffire Pro26io these days.
 
jamesperrett said:
As I understand it, once he's got it configured, it doesn't need to be connected to a computer again so the disappearance of Firewire doesn't matter. That's how I use my Focusrite Saffire Pro26io these days.
Click to expand...
Fairy nuff but will it STAY so configured for evernever? I find 'digital stuff' always has a hissey fit at some point.

Dave.
 
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